GUEST POST WITH SARAH FOX

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Marley McKinney’s aging cousin, Jimmy, is hospitalized with pneumonia, she agrees to help run his pancake house while he recovers. With its rustic interior and syrupy scent, the Flip Side Pancake House is just as she pictured it—and the surly chef is a wizard with crêpes. Marley expects to spend a leisurely week or two in Wildwood Cove, the quaint, coastal community where she used to spend her summers, but then Cousin Jimmy is found murdered, sprawled on the rocks beneath a nearby cliff.
After she stumbles across evidence of stolen goods in Jimmy’s workshop, Marley is determined to find out what’s really going on in the not-so-quiet town of Wildwood Cove. With help from her childhood crush and her adopted cat, Flapjack, Marley sinks her teeth into the investigation. But if she’s not careful, she’s going to get burned by a killer who’s only interested in serving up trouble.

GUEST POST WITH SARAH FOX

Discovering Cozies

I've loved mysteries for as long as I can remember. The foundation for my obsession was built upon the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden books I found on my family's shelves. By about age twelve I'd discovered Agatha Christie, and from that point on I was absolutely hooked. I went on to read numerous Agatha Christie books as well as mysteries by other authors such as Elizabeth Peters, Kathy Reichs, and Elizabeth George. I also started watching mysteries on television, especially British ones like Foyle's War, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, and Miss Marple.

While I love all types of mysteries, it was when I discovered the modern cozy mystery that I truly found my favorite genre. I was in my twenties at the time. I'd just moved to a small town and was checking out the new-to-me library when I found a rack full of paperback mysteries with fun cover designs. I checked out a couple and took them home, and an avid cozy mystery reader was born.

I devoured numerous cozies and became hooked on several series, including Sheila Connolly's Apple Orchard Mysteries, Lorna Barrett's Booktown Mysteries, and Jennie Bentley's Do-It-Yourself Mysteries. I couldn't get enough of them, and I longed to be a cozy mystery author myself. At the time, however, I told myself I wouldn't be able to write a mystery, that I simply wasn't clever enough to pull it off. So I stuck with writing science fiction and fantasy, while still reading cozy after cozy.

Eventually, my desire to write a mystery became too powerful to ignore, and I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a try. Since I was so in love with cozies, it was a natural choice for me to write in that subgenre. In less than four months, I'd written Dead Ringer, the first book in the Music Lover's Mystery series. Even before I'd finished the manuscript, I knew that writing cozies was what I was meant to do. As with reading cozies, writing one made me so happy that I knew I would write more and more in the future.

Now I'm working on the Pancake House Mysteries, my second series, and I couldn't be happier. The Crêpes of Wrath was so much fun to write, and I particularly loved bringing the seaside town of Wildwood Cove to life. At this time, I'm writing the second book in the series, For Whom the Bread Rolls, and I'm enjoying the process as much as ever. Although my writing and my day job keep me busy, I still make time to read cozies on a regular basis. I have such a good time returning to familiar settings and characters, following the next adventure in a series, and I also delight in discovering new cozy series. As much as I enjoy reading and writing other types of mysteries, cozies are—and likely always will be—my true book genre love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Fox was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she developed a love for mysteries at a young age. When not writing novels or working as a legal writer, she is often reading her way through a stack of books or spending time outdoors with her English Springer Spaniel.

Connect with Sarah:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Penguin Random House